OREANDA-NEWS. January 8, 2010. Last year’s drilling operations turned out equivalent to 82.87% of drilling for 2008 (202,954 m).

SOCAR informs that if not to take into account drilling operations by joint ventures (JVs) and operating companies (OCs) it drilled 12,770 m in December versus 12,747 m in November, 11,084 m in October, 13,161 m in September, 15,214 m in August, 9,178 m in July, 13,919 in June, 14,968 m in May, 17,399 m in April, 16,004 m March, 15,225 m in February, 16,513 m in January of 2009, and 16,091 m in December 2008.

Drilling for 2009 totaled 168,182 m.

In the past December, development drilling made up 11,536 m and exploration drilling 1,234 m versus 11,684 m and 1,063 m in November, 8,385 m and 2,699 m respectively in October and 11,269 m and 1,892 m respectively in September.

Between January and November 2009, these indicators made up 160,326 m and 7,856 m respectively. In December, exploration drilling increased by 16.08% against the November figure.

The target for 2009 was not published, and the target for 2008 was 190,434 m (including 181,204 m of development and 9,230 m of exploratory drilling respectively).

In 2007, SOCAR (if not to take into account JVs and OCs) drilled 190,376 m, including 185,234 m of development and 5,142 m of exploration drilling.